WTH? Discourged
 

So, I did well this week. No Soda, no fast food. Fasting a little in the mornings and stopped eating early. I had a steady loss of 1.5 pounds throughout the week. Then yesterday I broke down and had a bagel for breakfast. But I was good the rest of the day. I only ate around 1500 calories the whole day (included the bagel) and even worked out last night before I went to bed. Burning off about 200 calories. I wake up this morning with my stomach growling and I get on the scale and instead of going down it says I gained back my whole 1.5 pounds.. How is that possible? A bagel should not undo a weeks worth of progress in one damn day. So now it is Friday and I am discouraged because this is not the first time I have had to lose weight in my life but it is by far the hardest because I am in my mid thirties and a single mother with two damn jobs. I am an emotional eater so this time around has been so hard. I feel like crap... I might as well have done nothing instead of this battle all week long to show zero results. I feel like going out and stuffing myself with Chic Fila for lunch.....:?::?:

You definitely didn’t gain it all back. The scales are a good tool but are not accurate in the short term. What you saw is water retention. I have learned to always wait at least two days after my ‘transgressions’ before weighing. I have ‘gained’ 8 lbs over a day of poor eating and promptly lost it after drinking lots of water and getting back to my healthy eating.

Don’t get discouraged! You’ll find a nice loss after waiting a few days.

Melissa : you are micro-mananaging your attempts to lose weight !

A bathroom scale is generally reasonably accurate, but is not a scientific instrument like a triple beam balance for precise small weights

When dealing with larger weights over 100 lbs like an adult human variance exists. You can weigh yourself on a digital scale that gives readings to .2 lbs

You might do it 3 times in a row and get 3 different results

I know water weighs about 8 lbs a gallon. Urine is almost entirely water.

I weigh myself naked before showering. I have weighed myself, emptied my bladder of at least a pint ( 1 lb + ), had a bowel movement, so I should be down like 2 lbs just a few moments later. After reweighing myself I sometimes get a reading that says I gained .8 lbs in 3 minutes when I know I just dropped 2 lbs !

Weigh yourself like once a week naked, record and track it, daily variance is insane. Take the weight 3 times and average it.

Don't drive yourself to insanity over a bagel, you have to eat something !

Best Wishes

It is also perfectly normal to gain weight as you age, especially a woman that has had children and is starting to see 40 on the horizon.

You might have been a 118 lb cheerleader in high school, that's not realistic in middle age

If you are say 5'5" or so , something like 140-150 lbs is a realistic healthy weight, 118 is not for most.

It is better to be a bit overweight instead of Anorexic or Bulimic, and 150 is not overweight for women of average height, at 180 you might be tending towards a bit heavy, but no fatter than most of your peers.

My guess is that you are not highly overweight/ obese

BMI isn't perfect but if around 25, you're good, 22.4 might not be realistic, 29.4= you're getting kinda fat, honey !

Somewhere around 28-29 is actually about average in the states !

Be realistic

One word -- glycogen.

Sugar (or simple carbs in this case a bagel) combines with water (at a rate like 4 x water to each sugar) and forms something called glycogen that is your body's preferred way to use energy. If you go back to eating normally it will piddle out during the day.

Some plans like Intermittent fasting say that insulin is the reason we are fat. But I personally suspect it is glycogen. If you don't deplete your glycogen stores each day, they make it into fat. This is why I think people gain so much more weight on sugar / simple carb diets.

FrankB has sensible advice. :)

Instead of fasting you may wish to try eating small, healthy meals frequently throughout the day. I'm sure you've probably heard this one a lot, but you should try to have something within an hour of getting up in the morning. It really does help to have your body being fueled instead of depriving it. As long as you are sensible in your choices you should see results in weight loss soon. :)

First thing in the morning I like something along the lines of perhaps a cup of Greek yogurt or some cottage cheese accompaniened by something fruitlike such as grapes, cantoloupe, watermelon, a pear, or whatever I have in the fridge

For some variety...you can't eat the same thing everyday

A bowl of dececent cereal like Special K, or Cheerios, maybe a hard-boiled egg, occasionally an English muffin with peanut butter and jelly if going extremely indulgent

22.4 BMI is close to average in Japan, so I think 22.4 is realistic, if you're willing to put some effort into eating healthy.

Japan and USA are very different places

Figuring cultural differences, someone with a history of a tendency to gain weight, just being realistic about what one might be able to maintain long term...

Something like 24-28.6 BMI is achievable, even getting into the 29- 33.3 zone isn't awful, at 35+ plus you're really packing on the pounds and should address why your that heavy

Strive for 25, sort of a skinny fat number you might be able to maintain

If the majority of Japanese people can do it, I think it proves that it's not very hard. They don't have a genetic advantage. They're not starving themselves. They're just eating healthier and exercising more. It's just a question of whether you're willing to make the lifestyle changes.

You can easily find healthy foods in American supermarkets, which are just as healthy as the food in Japan.